DRYDEN, JOHN, was b. at Aldwinckle, in Northamptonshire, on the 9th Aug., 1631. His father, Erasmus Driden, was the third son of sir Erasmus Driden, created a baronet in 1619. D. received the rudiments of his education at Tichmarsh, and was afterwards admitted a king's scholar at Westminsters chool, under Dr. Busby. Here in 1649, he wrote an Elegy on the Death of Lord Hastings, and some commendatory verses on the Divine Epigrams of his friend John Hoddesdon; both of which performances were published in 1650. In May, 1650, he was elected to a schoralship in Trinity college, Cam bridge; he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1653-54; and was made Master of Arts in 1657. His father dying in 1654, put him in possession of an estate worth £60 per annum, of which sum his mother had life-interest in a third. After leaving the university, he proceeded to London, under the patronage of sir Gilbert Pickering, who was faithful to the protector, and seems to have aroused for the time the same feeling in his protégé, whose first poem of importance was entitled Heroic San2as on the Death of Cromwell. On the return of Charles II., D., with equal splendor of diction, and per haps with equal sincerity, congratulated the restoration.
The publication of a poem, entitled Astrcea Reduz, led to a breach between the poet and the family of sir Gilbert Pickering, and he now became author by profession. He turned his attention to the stage, planned The Duke of Guise, and wrote his first acted play, The Wild Gallant. In Dec., 1603, he married a daughter of the first earl of Berkshire, with whom he received a portion; and in 1670, he was appointed poet-laure ate and historiographer, with a salary of £200 a year. He afterwards entered into an engagement with the theaters to supply them with three plays each year, for which he was to receive annually from £300 to £400; but as he did not fulfill his share of the contract, it is not probable that the theaters fulfilled theirs, In 1671, the duke of Buckingham produced his attack on the English heroic drama, of which D. was the head. This satirical piece was entitled The Rehearsal, and when it was brought on the stage, the town was amused. - Although D. endured his caStigation in silence,
and, waiting his opportunity, immortally revenged himself on the witty and profligate duke in the Absalom. and Aehitophel. This magnificent satire arose out of the political commotions of the times, and is an elaborate defense of the king against the •hig party. Charles II. is David; Monmouth, Absalom; Cromwell, Saul; Buckingham, Zimri; and Shaftesbury, Aehitophel. Its success was amazing; it ran through five editions within the year. This great poem appeared in 1681; and enraged at its success, D.'s enemies hovered around him like a cloud of venomous gnats. In the same year he published The Medal. Elkanah Settle, one of the most virulent of his foes, replied with some effect; and D., thoroughly roused, issued next year the Mac Flecknoe, and the second part of Absalom and Achitophel. These satires were as overwhelming as the Italian battles of the first Napoleon; D.'s enemies were crushed forever, and he remained during his life time the undisputed king and lawgiver of English literature.
After the death of Charles II., D. became a convert to the Roman Catholic faith. This event was announced to the world by the publication of The Hind and Panther, in 1657. For this change of faith, he has been much abused. Macaulay calls him "an illustrious renegade." Mr. Bell, one of his biographers,- strenuously defends his con scientiousness. At the revolution, he was deprived of his laureateship, and somewhat straitened in circumstances, he fell back upon his old occupation of writing for the stage. His translation of Virgil was begun in 1694, and completed by the close of 1696. A month after the publication of Virgil, appeared the Ode on Alexander's Feast. In 1698, he commenced his Fables, and completed them in a year and a half. His last work was a mask, with prologue and epilogue. He died on the 1st May, 1700, and was buried in Westminster abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory by John, duke of Buckingham.